Japan has just issued itself a permit to kill nearly 4000 Minke Whales in Antarctic waters. Japan wants to put 333 whales on the butcher's block, every year for the next twelve years. The only quota for lethal, so-called "scientific research" on whales

Whale defenders are facing prison time in Japan. Greenpeace activists Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki have acted in the public interest by exposing large scale embezzlement inside the whaling industry in Japan -- yet they are on trial and face up to 10

Conservationists monitoring Japanese whalers in the Antarctic said that they remained committed to protecting whales despite a dangerous clash this week that resulted in the sinking of one of their boats.

Mr. Hunt says the Japanese Government has abandoned the pretext for scientific whaling, and is slaughtering whales for food.
There is mounting pressure on the Federal Government to take legal action against Japanese whalers

The Steve Irwin ship - out on the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's most recent Antarctic Whale Defense Campaign - has hit trouble, with reports of a Japanese security ship illegally tailing the crew and firing a "military class weapon" at their

. Every year, hundreds of whales are killed by Japanese whalers under the guise of research. Commercial whaling was baned in 1986. But international laws state that a specific number of whales can be killed each year for the purpose of research.

Many people around the world have tried to tell Japan, "You don't own these whales - they are wild and free, and should be left alone." Above all, Australia and her citizens hold an important position in the fight to save whales from these Japanese

Say what you like of Sea Shepherd's tactics, but they are working. And that's not a bit of PR from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society itself, it comes from the Japanese Fisheries Agency. This year's Antarctic hunt fell well short of its target:

The Japanese government attempts to defend its whaling program by calling it "scientific" whaling.In reality ,this deadly program is nothing more than unlawful commercial whaling in disguise.We don't need to kill whales to study them in the 21st century.

The Japanese Foreign Ministry and Institute for Cetecean Research have denied guns were used at all during the engagement in contradiction to advice given to Australian embassy officials in Japan and the reports from Sea Shepherd.

The Japanese Coast Guard was retaliating against Sea Shepherd crewmembers for tossing rotten butter onto the decks to discourage their illegal whaling activities. The clash came after a week long pursuit by the Steve Irwin of the Nisshin Maru, in an

Anti-whaling protesters in the Southern Ocean have laughed off reports a Japanese shipping company is preparing to sue them.
The reported threat to sue follows a clash on Monday between the Sea Shepherd conservation group and a Japanese ship in

In Africa, Somali poachers are shot on sight for poaching elephants and the world approves. In India, Indian poachers are shot for poaching tigers. Yet when the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society crew tosses rotten butter onto the deck of a wealthy high